KFC tests out new bunless burger to rave reviews in America's heartland

The chemistry whizkids at what used to be called Kentucky Fried Chicken before 'fried' became a word with negative connotations have come up with what they believe may be the year's big fast food burger seller - and it doesn't include bread. Behold, the Double Down.

The creation features a dollop of the Colonel's secret sauce wrapped in a slice of both Pepperjack Cheese and Swiss Cheese, between two slices of bacon and two filets of KFC original recipe chicken that serve as the 'bread' of the burger.

That's right - instead of bread, you get breaded chicken. Multiplied by two.

The Double Down is generally considered to be a big success thus far in the areas it has been tested, with management at a KFC outlet in Omaha Nebraska telling Australian reporters that the 'sandwich' had exceeded expectations.

The Double Down sells for $6.99 and a TV commercial promoting it in the American midwest says it has "so much 100 percent premium chicken, we didn't have room for a bun." The commercial comes as part of the "Rethink KFC" campaign that has, to date, been focused on rebranding the company with healthy products.

KFC doesn't offer official nutritional information on their website to tell potential Double Downers what they might be doing to their internal system, so we here at The Vancouver Sun have taken out our chemistry set and rebuilt the Double Down in our underground lab with a view to figuring out how it works.

The results of our calculations (and these are only guess-timates) show this one menu item can be estimated to supply more than the daily recommended allowance in fat (124%), saturated fat (117%), cholesterol (105%), sodium (125%) and protein (194%), as well as 61% of your daily recommended calorie intake.

Our figures are only an estimate based on nutritional information listed for individual ingredients on the KFC website, as well as ingredients that closely resemble others not listed, and data provided by nutritional watchdog groups based on generic brands, so should be taken (if you'll excuse the pun) with a grain of salt.

But if our figures hold true, and we haven't been able to get KFC to confirm they don't, the Double Down is more caloriffic than the Wendy's Triple with Everything and Cheese (1700 mg sodium, 960 calories, 26 gms of fat), the Burger King Stacker Quad (1770 sodium, 1020 calories, 69 gms of fat), and compares closely to the fat, salt and calorie totals of three McDonalds Big Macs put together (3060 sodium, 1620 calories, 87 gms fat).

UPDATE: KFC public relations rep Rick Maynard has come forward with some nutritional information estimates for the Double Down which he says run contrary to what we've reported. Maynard says the firm wouldn't normally do a full nutritional run on a product unless they decided to roll out a product nationally, but he has volunteered estimated figures for the information of the eating public.

Maynard clarifies, "It looks like when you guys ran your numbers, you included the numbers for two Original Recipe breasts (chicken on the bone). This product uses Original Recipe filets."

That information changes things markedly in some areas, according to KFC, putting the calorie count at 590, the total fat content at 31g, the saturated fat at 10g, and the cholesterol at 190mg. That's certainly an improvement, putting the meal in line with the mid-to-high range of most fast food outlet menu items.

KFC provided no information on sodium content, carbohydrates or protein, and though our adjusted numbers still come out differently to what the company claims to be true, we'll cede to their food boffins as knowing more than our junk food addicts with calculators and muffin-top waistlines.

Eat up, Nebraskans. And pass the napkins.

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KFC tests out new bunless burger to rave reviews in America's heartland